I am doing a clinical practicum with a school nurse. We have an 8 year old who tests 2-4 times a day at school. She was told by her diabetic educator that she can reuse the lancets for three days. The mom is insistant we follow this.
When we checked with the educator, she told us that while "best practice" is to change each time, they do tell their patients that they can reuse them until they are dull, for financial reasons. BUT, she will not send us an order to that effect, because it is against nursing standard of care. She says that we should change them at school, but the patient doesn't have to at home.
We think this is confusing for the student. As well, the mother is refusing to provide us with enough lancets to change each time at school, insisting we use one for three days.
Our only recourse is to request the educator send us an order that "at school, lancets need to be changed each time" which might then force the mom to provide us with what we need. This is still a sticky situation, because mom has told us she does not care what the educator tells us---she is the parent and we are to do what she says.
